Geely Holding Rises to 220th Place in Fortune Global 500

2019 July 22, Hangzhou China-Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (Geely Holding), China's largest privately-owned automotive technology company, rose 47 places in the 2019 Fortune Global 500 to 220th after its last year's revenues reached US$49.665 billion.

The ranking marks the eight consecutive year that the Group has featured in the Fortune Global 500. Since first entering the Fortune Global 500 in 2012, Geely Holding has risen 255 places. Geely Holding marked its latest inclusion in the Fortune 500 by issuing the following summary of its progress from the past year:

Geely Holding achieved extremely strong results in 2018 due to record sales of its subsidiary brands. All together, the brands under Geely Holding sold more than 2.15 million vehicles in 2018. Geely Auto and Lynk & Co under Geely Auto Group sold 1,500,838 vehicles in 2018, an increase of 20.3% from the previous year, marking the first time it has breached the 1.5 million mark. Meanwhile, Volvo Cars also set a new record as it breached the 600,000 mark for the first time since the company was founded in 1927, selling 642,253 cars in 2018, a growth of 12.4% compared to the same period in 2017.

During the first half of 2019, Geely Holding has continued to steadily develop. In the six months, Geely Auto Group, made up of Geely Auto and LYNK & CO, reported a combined sales of 651,680 vehicles. Geely Auto was first in cumulative sales in 2019 among Chinese brands.

Volvo Cars reported record first half year sales in 2019 with 340,826 units sold, a growth of 7.3% compared to 2018. The brand also recorded its highest ever first half sales in China of 67,741 cars, an increase of 10.2%, compared to the same period last year.

Integrated development was the key to Geely Holding Group’s success with Volvo and the comprehensive rejuvenation of the brand. The successful blueprint of integration and development can be seen again in the progress of the PROTON and Lotus brands. Since the inclusion of the two brands in the Geely Holding portfolio in 2017, Geely Holding has continuously enhanced and expanded its existing global R&D network, manufacturing, and supply chain, further enriching its product lines and raising each brand’s competitive advantages.

Geely and PROTON has deepened their strategic cooperation. The PROTON X70 has revitalized the Malaysian national brand and localized production at their Tanjung Malim plant is near completion.

The classic British sports car brand Lotus is being rejuvenated with new products such as the new Evora GT410 Sport and the world's first British pure electric hypercar, Evija. Lotus will focus on accelerating their expansion into new markets in the second half of 2019.

Today, Geely Holding's successful approach to integrating diverse businesses is becoming a model for the development of private enterprises in China, and has been studied by major business schools recently including Harvard, Peking University, and Tsinghua University.

Apart from automotive sales, Geely Holding continues to intensify its commitment to developing technologies for the future of mobility. Geely Holding and Baidu recently announced they will strategically cooperate in the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications in the automotive ecosystem, with the aim of accelerating the large-scale popularization of intelligent-connected vehicles around the world. Recently, Geely invested subsidiary, ECARX, announced a new chipset, the E-Series, a system-on-chip made specifically for intelligent connected vehicles that enhances user experience in vehicles equipped with Geely’s GKUI system. Geely Holding has also signed strategic framework agreements with China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) to cooperate on the development of supersonic trains and related technologies, as well as China Telecom, China Mobile, and China Unicom to further develop 5G and V2X technologies.

In the field of new energy, 2019 marks the unveiling of the new pure-electric brand, Geometry, under Geely Auto Group. The new brand represents the importance Geely Holding has placed on the development of new energy in this new era. Geometry will launch more than a dozen pure electric models by 2025 including sedans, SUVs, and MPVs. In the first half of 2019, Geely Auto Group sold more than 57,600 new energy and electrified models, an increase of 301.06% from the previous year.

On the commercial vehicle side, Geely New Energy Commercial Vehicle Group has experienced immense growth in 2019 with its Farizon Auto brand releasing several new environmentally friendly models such as the world’s first M100 methanol heavy truck, F12 hydrogen fuel cell passenger bus, and C11 pure electric city bus. In the EU, London Electric Vehicle Company unveiled their zero-emission capable light van based on the same architecture and e-City range extender technology as their TX taxi, of which are more than 2,000 on the road already.

Geely Holding also announced the formation of a 50-50 globally-focused joint venture with Daimler AG to own, operate, and further develop smart, the pioneer brand for small urban vehicles. Under the agreement, a new generation of smart electric models will be assembled in China with global sales due to commence in 2022.